SHIN SEKAI: SPARK OF THE NEW WORLD

The postponed battle

While all the battles took place, Shiro was lying on a park bench staring at the eternal tower in front of him. it was called eternal because no one could really tell how old it was. even scientifically it was seen as something that was just recently built, but in reality it was present even before the island's discovery. it was even stated in the old tales of Nihon. no one knew the history of this tower and Shiro wondered "am I so bored that I'm thinking of this right now?"

  After that question, it didn't take long for his boredom came to an end. His situation got a transition from bored to endangered really quickly with the arrival of an unexpected person.

  Shiro didn't think, he didn't even stop to quiver in fear or come up with a plan. He immediately turned his back and ran. He just wasn't ready to die twice. 

  from the perspective of normal people, the wind blew briefly, but from Shiro's point of view, it was a chase that lasted about twenty minutes in relative time and yet he couldn't shake off his pursuer.

  As Shiro finally gave and stopped running, he looked up and saw that he was back to where he started but that wasn't what he was worried about. His greatest worry was the armored man in front of him and what was about to transpire. 

  The armored man from before had a little bit of uncertainty but the one standing in front of Shiro emitted an aura, that of pure murder intent, one that defied reason and was so deadly that Shiro coughed out blood before he could realise what was going on.

  By the time Shiro got hold of himself, he had already received his first punch and was rolling in the distance but he was not ready to resign himself to the cruel fate that stared him in the eyes. He immediately picked himself up and put on his headphones. 

  "I didn't have this on last time" he said, giving a faint smile

"let's see how it turns out this time"

 Shiro was set to go and the armored man was already in close proximity, so with an atmosphere that was highly intense, they let the battle commence.

  Meanwhile Tanaka was at her restaurant trying to understand what happened. She could clearly see a group of tied up bandits but the whole place showed no signs of battle. She saw the talent in Yamato but she didn't know how awesome he was. 

  It took her minutes of marveling before she remembered to ask her question.

  "what do you know about Nihon?"

  "Huh?" was the first thing was uttered by Yamato and Tanaka had to repeat her question before he could give her any solid answers. 

  He heard it first time he met Victor. he could still remember the words Victor said after he introduced himself. "You have the same name as the kingdom that once rose against Nihon" 

  He also remembered how Shiro wouldn't stop ranting about the old tales and everything concerning them. 

   After hearing all of if, Tanaka finally understood Endo's pain, then she realized who Endo said he had to kill.

  "close the restaurant"

  "What?!!"

  "CLOSE THE DAMN RESTAURANT !!!"

  "but we still have customers"

  "oh..."

  Tanaka realised that she wasn't thinking things through. there was something she should have done before asking Yamato to close up the restaurant.

  She immediately got the attention of the customers and began apologising. 

  "I'm terribly sorry but something came up and we have to close, so could you please..."

she paused and somehow looked everyone in the eye before saying "GET OUT!!" in tone that struck fear and in a manner of seconds the whole place was empty and what was going through Yamato's mind was "so is that an apology or...?"

  In a short time they closed shop and headed to find Shiro. As they moved, Yamato contacted Victor and informed him of the situation. 

  On the other hand, Shiro had managed to get his opponent into his rhythm but it was only enough to bring the fight to a stalemate. He had not received any blows since the clash started but he was also yet to land his first. He was being hesitant because he feared the counter but the battle was going nowhere. 

  It had been fifteen minutes since they started fighting nonstop and Shiro was getting tired of it. Not because he running out of energy or because he was weakened, but because he feared that he end up sleeping in the midst of the battle. He had been fighting on the same looped song and it was about time to switch things up, so he backed away from his opponent and quickly changed the song to the one wanted before rejoining fight. 

  The next thing that happened took Shiro by surprise. He had expected an abnormal counter from the armored man but as soon as he unleashed his his first strike, but he got three hits in and his opponent was somewhere in the far distance. He couldn't quite understand what was going on but he got opportunity to take off his headphones and set his ears free before putting them back on. But as soon as he took them off, the murderous intent that he felt before came back in full force and he coughed up blood again, but as soon as he put the headphones back on he couldn't feel it anymore. Just to be sure, he took them off again and the murderous intent returned and as soon as he put them back on it was gone. Then as he had the headphones on, he turned off the music and realized that it was all about the rhythm. He quickly lost in the previous battle when he was without his headphones but now, they were helping him win because he was sure that the rhythm was used to perfect his fighting style but in no way did it make him stronger. it was more like his opponent was getting weaker.

  What surprised Shiro the most was throughout the ordeal of his contemplation the armored man remained down.

  He immediately contacted Victor to report the situation. 

  "exactly as I suspected " Victor said

  "what exactly did you suspect ?" Shiro asked

  "Shiro you have to get out of there, you're fighting another man's postponed battle, you can't win " Victor warned but Shiro didn't listen

  "I don't get what you're saying, I'm winning right now " Shiro said

  "that's just for now " Victor replied

  "what do you mean for now? " Shiro asked

  "it's about the rhythm right? " Victor asked

  "how did you know? "

  "It's quite simple, really. Everytime you start listening to music, things around you start turning white and your genetic frequency changes"

  "I don't still get it "

  "I don't get it either but my guess is that when you're listening to music, your frequency becomes the same as that of the man who is supposed to be fighting this battle "

  "well that still doesn't explain you mean by a postponed battle "

  A postponed battle is basically what it sounds like but in the case of the armored man it was a spell. it was a spell used by one who wished to discontinue a fight and it was done without the consent of his opponent. it was known to be cast by using one's own essence to petrify an opponent. The petrified opponent is then turned into a solid unbreakable material similar to stone and ends up resembling a statue. Only the one who cast the spell can release his opponent and if he fails to do so before death, he is destined to reincarnate as one of his own descendants and complete his battle. 

  The spell could be performed by anyone and the only known condition was that one should have bore an offspring before casting the spell. Many men tried to take advantage of the fact that it ensured their reincarnation but they were stopped, and the knowledge of this spell became nothing but a myth. and even those that were sure of it's existence were unable to prove it.

  Victor analyzed the situation and said that if Endo's claims were true, he would be right to assume him to be the armored man. He also took the old tales into consideration. The relationship between the fact that Shin was the only person from Yamato that didn't escape the island and the fact that Shiro was able to release Endo from the postponement spell was inexcusable, but what finalised his assumption was his monitor's screen and a call from Mia.

  when Victor took Mia's call, the armored man had fully recovered and Shiro's battle continued. Not long after, in the midst of battle, Shiro received Victor's call and got news.

  "I've got two bad news, and a good news, in what order do you want to hear hear them? "

  "bad good bad "

  "so the first bad news is that you are definitely not Shin and it won't be long before the guiding laws of the postponement spell recognize that "

  "and the good news? "

  "the real Shin is on his way "

  "not so bad, if I can hold on till he gets here then it's all good news "

  "not so bad until you realise that he is a long way from where you are and is moving at walking speed "